A blog that tackles issues on basic education (in the Philippines and the United States) including early childhood education, the teaching profession, math and science education, medium of instruction, poverty, and the role of research and higher education.

"Bear in mind that the wonderful things you learn in your schools are the work of many generations, produced by enthusiastic effort and infinite labor in every country of the world. All this is put into your hands as your inheritance in order that you may receive it, honor it, add to it, and one day faithfully hand it to your children. Thus do we mortals achieve immortality in the permanent things which we create in common." - Albert Einstein

Monday, May 28, 2012

A Lesson from History

The classroom was a spacious rectangular hall with large gratedwindows that admitted an abundance of light and air. Along the twosides extended three wide tiers of stone covered with wood, filledwith students arranged in alphabetical order. At the end opposite theentrance, under a print of St. Thomas Aquinas, rose the professor'schair on an elevated platform with a little stairway on each side. Withthe exception of a beautiful blackboard in a narra frame, scarcelyever used, since there was still written on it the _viva_ that hadappeared on the opening day, no furniture, either useful or useless,was to be seen. The walls, painted white and covered with glazed tilesto prevent scratches, were entirely bare, having neither a drawingnor a picture, nor even an outline of any physical apparatus. Thestudents had no need of any, no one missed the practical instructionin an extremely experimental science; for years and years it has beenso taught and the country has not been upset, but continues just asever. Now and then some little instrument descended from heaven andwas exhibited to the class from a distance, like the monstrance tothe prostrate worshipers--look, but touch not! From time to time,when some complacent professor appeared, one day in the year wasset aside for visiting the mysterious laboratory and gazing fromwithout at the puzzling apparatus arranged in glass cases. No onecould complain, for on that day there were to be seen quantities ofbrass and glassware, tubes, disks, wheels, bells, and the like--theexhibition did not get beyond that, and the country was not upset.

Besides, the students were convinced that those instruments had notbeen purchased for them--the friars would be fools! The laboratorywas intended to be shown to the visitors and the high officials whocame from the Peninsula, so that upon seeing it they would nod theirheads with satisfaction, while their guide would smile, as if to say,"Eh, you thought you were going to find some backward monks! Well,we're right up with the times--we have a laboratory!"

The visitors and high officials, after being handsomely entertained,would then write in their _Travels_ or _Memoirs_: "The Royaland Pontifical University of Santo Tomas of Manila, in charge ofthe enlightened Dominican Order, possesses a magnificent physicallaboratory for the instruction of youth. Some two hundred and fiftystudents annually study this subject, but whether from apathy,indolence, the limited capacity of the Indian, or some otherethnological or incomprehensible reason, up to now there has notdeveloped a Lavoisier, a Secchi, or a Tyndall, not even in miniature,in the Malay-Filipino race."

Yet, to be exact, we will say that in this laboratory are held theclasses of thirty or forty _advanced_ students, under the direction ofan instructor who performs his duties well enough, but as the greaterpart of these students come from the Ateneo of the Jesuits, wherescience is taught practically in the laboratory itself, its utilitydoes not come to be so great as it would be if it could be utilized bythe two hundred and fifty who pay their matriculation fees, buy theirbooks, memorize them, and waste a year to know nothing afterwards. Asa result, with the exception of some rare usher or janitor who hashad charge of the museum for years, no one has ever been known toget any advantage from the lessons memorized with so great effort.

But let us return to the class. The professor was a young Dominican,who had filled several chairs in San Juan de Letran with zeal andgood repute. He had the reputation of being a great logician as wellas a profound philosopher, and was one of the most promising in hisclique. His elders treated him with consideration, while the youngermen envied him, for there were also cliques among them. This was thethird year of his professorship and, although the first in which hehad taught physics and chemistry, he already passed for a sage, notonly with the complaisant students but also among the other nomadicprofessors. Padre Millon did not belong to the common crowd who eachyear change their subject in order to acquire scientific knowledge,students among other students, with the difference only that theyfollow a single course, that they quiz instead of being quizzed,that they have a better knowledge of Castilian, and that they are notexamined at the completion of the course. Padre Millon went deeplyinto science, knew the physics of Aristotle and Padre Amat, readcarefully his "Ramos," and sometimes glanced at "Ganot." With all that,he would often shake his head with an air of doubt, as he smiled andmurmured: "_transeat_." In regard to chemistry, no common knowledgewas attributed to him after he had taken as a premise the statement ofSt. Thomas that water is a mixture and proved plainly that the AngelicDoctor had long forestalled Berzelius, Gay-Lussac, Bunsen, and othermore or less presumptuous materialists. Moreover, in spite of havingbeen an instructor in geography, he still entertained certain doubts asto the rotundity of the earth and smiled maliciously when its rotationand revolution around the sun were mentioned, as he recited the verses

"El mentir de las estrellas Es un cómodo mentir." [29]

He also smiled maliciously in the presence of certain physicaltheories and considered visionary, if not actually insane, theJesuit Secchi, to whom he imputed the making of triangulations onthe host as a result of his astronomical mania, for which reason itwas said that he had been forbidden to celebrate mass. Many personsalso noticed in him some aversion to the sciences that he taught,but these vagaries were trifles, scholarly and religious prejudicesthat were easily explained, not only by the fact that the physicalsciences were eminently practical, of pure observation and deduction,while his forte was philosophy, purely speculative, of abstractionand induction, but also because, like any good Dominican, jealousof the fame of his order, he could hardly feel any affection for ascience in which none of his brethren had excelled--he was the firstwho did not accept the chemistry of St. Thomas Aquinas--and in whichso much renown had been acquired by hostile, or rather, let us say,rival orders.

This was the professor who that morning called the roll and directedmany of the students to recite the lesson from memory, word forword. The phonographs got into operation, some well, some ill, somestammering, and received their grades. He who recited without an errorearned a good mark and he who made more than three mistakes a bad mark.

A fat boy with a sleepy face and hair as stiff and hard as the bristlesof a brush yawned until he seemed to be about to dislocate his jaws,and stretched himself with his arms extended as though he were inhis bed. The professor saw this and wished to startle him.

Padre Millon not only used the depreciative _tu_ with the students,like a good friar, but he also addressed them in the slang of themarkets, a practise that he had acquired from the professor ofcanonical law: whether that reverend gentleman wished to humble thestudents or the sacred decrees of the councils is a question not yetsettled, in spite of the great attention that has been given to it.

This question, instead of offending the class, amused them, and manylaughed--it was a daily occurrence. But the sleeper did not laugh;he arose with a bound, rubbed his eyes, and, as though a steam-enginewere turning the phonograph, began to recite.

"The name of mirror is applied to all polished surfaces intended toproduce by the reflection of light the images of the objects placedbefore said surfaces. From the substances that form these surfaces,they are divided into metallic mirrors and glass mirrors--"

"Stop, stop, stop!" interrupted the professor. "Heavens, what arattle! We are at the point where the mirrors are divided intometallic and glass, eh? Now if I should present to you a block ofwood, a piece of kamagon for instance, well polished and varnished,or a slab of black marble well burnished, or a square of jet, whichwould reflect the images of objects placed before them, how wouldyou classify those mirrors?"

Whether he did not know what to answer or did not understandthe question, the student tried to get out of the difficulty bydemonstrating that he knew the lesson, so he rushed on like a torrent.

"The first are composed of brass or an alloy of different metals andthe second of a sheet of glass, with its two sides well polished,one of which has an amalgam of tin adhering to it."

"Tut, tut, tut! That's not it! I say to you '_Dominus vobiscum_,'and you answer me with '_Requiescat in pace!_' "

The worthy professor then repeated the question in the vernacular ofthe markets, interspersed with _cosas_ and _abás_ at every moment.

The poor youth did not know how to get out of the quandary: he doubtedwhether to include the kamagon with the metals, or the marble withglasses, and leave the jet as a neutral substance, until JuanitoPelaez maliciously prompted him:

"The mirror of kamagon among the wooden mirrors."

The incautious youth repeated this aloud and half the class wasconvulsed with laughter.

"A good sample of wood you are yourself!" exclaimed the professor,laughing in spite of himself. "Let's see from what you would define amirror--from a surface _per se, in quantum est superficies_, or from asubstance that forms the surface, or from the substance upon which thesurface rests, the raw material, modified by the attribute 'surface,'since it is clear that, surface being an accidental property of bodies,it cannot exist without substance. Let's see now--what do you say?"

"I? Nothing!" the wretched boy was about to reply, for he did notunderstand what it was all about, confused as he was by so manysurfaces and so many accidents that smote cruelly on his ears, buta sense of shame restrained him. Filled with anguish and breakinginto a cold perspiration, he began to repeat between his teeth:"The name of mirror is applied to all polished surfaces--"

"_Ergo, per te_, the mirror is the surface," angled theprofessor. "Well, then, clear up this difficulty. If the surface is themirror, it must be of no consequence to the 'essence' of the mirrorwhat may be found behind this surface, since what is behind it doesnot affect the 'essence' that is before it, _id est_, the surface,_quae super faciem est, quia vocatur superficies, facies ea quaesupra videtur_. Do you admit that or do you not admit it?"

The poor youth's hair stood up straighter than ever, as though actedupon by some magnetic force.

"Do you admit it or do you not admit it?"

"Anything! Whatever you wish, Padre," was his thought, but he didnot dare to express it from fear of ridicule. That was a dilemmaindeed, and he had never been in a worse one. He had a vague ideathat the most innocent thing could not be admitted to the friarsbut that they, or rather their estates and curacies, would get outof it all the results and advantages imaginable. So his good angelprompted him to deny everything with all the energy of his soul andrefractoriness of his hair, and he was about to shout a proud _nego_,for the reason that he who denies everything does not compromisehimself in anything, as a certain lawyer had once told him; but theevil habit of disregarding the dictates of one's own conscience,of having little faith in legal folk, and of seeking aid from otherswhere one is sufficient unto himself, was his undoing. His companions,especially Juanito Pelaez, were making signs to him to admit it,so he let himself be carried away by his evil destiny and exclaimed,"_Concedo_, Padre," in a voice as faltering as though he were saying,"_In manus tuas commendo spiritum meum._"

"_Concedo antecedentum_," echoed the professor, smilingmaliciously. "_Ergo_, I can scratch the mercury off a looking-glass,put in its place a piece of _bibinka_, and we shall still have amirror, eh? Now what shall we have?"

The youth gazed at his prompters, but seeing them surprised andspeechless, contracted his features into an expression of bitterestreproach. "_Deus meus, Deus meus, quare dereliquiste me,_" said histroubled eyes, while his lips muttered "_Linintikan!_" Vainly hecoughed, fumbled at his shirt-bosom, stood first on one foot and thenon the other, but found no answer.

"Come now, what have we?" urged the professor, enjoying the effectof his reasoning.

"_Bibinka!_" whispered Juanito Pelaez. "_Bibinka!_"

"Shut up, you fool!" cried the desperate youth, hoping to get out ofthe difficulty by turning it into a complaint.

"Let's see, Juanito, if you can answer the question for me," theprofessor then said to Pelaez, who was one of his pets.

The latter rose slowly, not without first giving Penitente, whofollowed him on the roll, a nudge that meant, "Don't forget toprompt me."

"_Nego consequentiam_, Padre," he replied resolutely.

"Aha, then _probo consequentiam! Per te_, the polished surfaceconstitutes the 'essence' of the mirror--"

_"Nego!"_ the student cried with still more ardor, feeling anotherjerk at his coat.

Juanito, or rather Placido, who was prompting him, was unconsciouslyadopting Chinese tactics: not to admit the most inoffensive foreignerin order not to be invaded.

"Then where are we?" asked the professor, somewhat disconcerted,and looking uneasily at the refractory student. "Does the substancebehind affect, or does it not affect, the surface?"

To this precise and categorical question, a kind of ultimatum, Juanitodid not know what to reply and his coat offered no suggestions. In vainhe made signs to Placido, but Placido himself was in doubt. Juanitothen took advantage of a moment in which the professor was staringat a student who was cautiously and secretly taking off the shoesthat hurt his feet, to step heavily on Placido's toes and whisper,"Tell me, hurry up, tell me!"

"I distinguish--Get out! What an ass you are!" yelled Placidounreservedly, as he stared with angry eyes and rubbed his hand overhis patent-leather shoe.

The professor heard the cry, stared at the pair, and guessed whathad happened.

"Listen, you meddler," he addressed Placido, "I wasn't questioningyou, but since you think you can save others, let's see if you cansave yourself, _salva te ipsum,_ and decide this question."

Juanito sat down in content, and as a mark of gratitude stuck outhis tongue at his prompter, who had arisen blushing with shame andmuttering incoherent excuses.

For a moment Padre Millon regarded him as one gloating over a favoritedish. What a good thing it would be to humiliate and hold up toridicule that dudish boy, always smartly dressed, with head erectand serene look! It would be a deed of charity, so the charitableprofessor applied himself to it with all his heart, slowly repeatingthe question.

"The book says that the metallic mirrors are made of brass and analloy of different metals--is that true or is it not true?"

"So the book says, Padre."

"_Liber dixit, ergo ita est_. Don't pretend that you know more than thebook does. It then adds that the glass mirrors are made of a sheet ofglass whose two surfaces are well polished, one of them having appliedto it an amalgam of tin, _nota bene_, an amalgam of tin! Is that true?"

"If the book says so, Padre."

"Is tin a metal?"

"It seems so, Padre. The book says so."

"It is, it is, and the word amalgam means that it is compounded withmercury, which is also a metal. _Ergo_, a glass mirror is a metallicmirror; _ergo_, the terms of the distinction are confused; _ergo_,the classification is imperfect--how do you explain that, meddler?"

He emphasized the _ergos_ and the familiar "you's" with indescribablerelish, at the same time winking, as though to say, "You're done for."

"It means that, it means that--" stammered Placido.

"It means that you haven't learned the lesson, you petty meddler,you don't understand it yourself, and yet you prompt your neighbor!"

The class took no offense, but on the contrary many thought theepithet funny and laughed. Placido bit his lips.

"What's your name?" the professor asked him.

"Placido," was the curt reply.

"Aha! Placido Penitente, although you look more like Placido thePrompter--or the Prompted. But, _Penitent_, I'm going to impose some_penance_ on you for your promptings."

Pleased with his play on words, he ordered the youth to recite thelesson, and the latter, in the state of mind to which he was reduced,made more than three mistakes. Shaking his head up and down, theprofessor slowly opened the register and slowly scanned it while hecalled off the names in a low voice.

"Fifteen unexcused absences," continued the professor, "so that youonly lack one to be dropped from the roll."

"Fifteen absences, fifteen absences," repeated Placido inamazement. "I've never been absent more than four times, and withtoday, perhaps five."

"Jesso, jesso, monseer," [31] replied the professor, examining theyouth over his gold eye-glasses. "You confess that you have missedfive times, and God knows if you may have missed oftener. _Atqui_,as I rarely call the roll, every time I catch any one I put fivemarks against him; _ergo_, how many are five times five? Have youforgotten the multiplication table? Five times five?"

"Twenty-five."

"Correct, correct! Thus you've still got away with ten, because I havecaught you only three times. Huh, if I had caught you every time--Now,how many are three times five?"

"Fifteen."

"Fifteen, right you are!" concluded the professor, closing theregister. "If you miss once more--out of doors with you, get out! Ah,now a mark for the failure in the daily lesson."

He again opened the register, sought out the name, and entered themark. "Come, only one mark," he said, "since you hadn't any before."

"But, Padre," exclaimed Placido, restraining himself, "if yourReverence puts a mark against me for failing in the lesson, yourReverence owes it to me to erase the one for absence that you haveput against me for today."

His Reverence made no answer. First he slowly entered the mark,then contemplated it with his head on one side,--the mark must beartistic,--closed the register, and asked with great sarcasm, "_Abá_,and why so, sir?"

"Because I can't conceive, Padre, how one can be absent from theclass and at the same time recite the lesson in it. Your Reverenceis saying that to be is not to be."

"_Nakú_, a metaphysician, but a rather premature one! So you can'tconceive of it, eh? _Sed patet experientia_ and _contra experientiamnegantem, fusilibus est arguendum_, do you understand? And can'tyou conceive, with your philosophical head, that one can be absentfrom the class and not know the lesson at the same time? Is it a factthat absence necessarily implies knowledge? What do you say to that,philosophaster?"

This last epithet was the drop of water that made the full cupoverflow. Placido enjoyed among his friends the reputation of beinga philosopher, so he lost his patience, threw down his book, arose,and faced the professor.

"Enough, Padre, enough! Your Reverence can put all the marks against methat you wish, but you haven't the right to insult me. Your Reverencemay stay with the class, I can't stand any more." Without furtherfarewell, he stalked away.

The class was astounded; such an assumption of dignity had scarcelyever been seen, and who would have thought it of Placido Penitente? Thesurprised professor bit his lips and shook his head threateningly as hewatched him depart. Then in a trembling voice he began his preachmenton the same old theme, delivered however with more energy and moreeloquence. It dealt with the growing arrogance, the innate ingratitude,the presumption, the lack of respect for superiors, the pride thatthe spirit of darkness infused in the young, the lack of manners,the absence of courtesy, and so on. From this he passed to coarsejests and sarcasm over the presumption which some good-for-nothing"prompters" had of teaching their teachers by establishing an academyfor instruction in Castilian.

"Aha, aha!" he moralized, "those who the day before yesterday scarcelyknew how to say, 'Yes, Padre,' 'No, Padre,' now want to know morethan those who have grown gray teaching them. He who wishes to learn,will learn, academies or no academies! Undoubtedly that fellow whohas just gone out is one of those in the project. Castilian is in goodhands with such guardians! When are you going to get the time to attendthe academy if you have scarcely enough to fulfill your duties in theregular classes? We wish that you may all know Spanish and that youpronounce it well, so that you won't split our ear-drums with yourtwist of expression and your 'p's'; [32] but first business and thenpleasure: finish your studies first, and afterwards learn Castilian,and all become clerks, if you so wish."

So he went on with his harangue until the bell rang and the class wasover. The two hundred and thirty-four students, after reciting theirprayers, went out as ignorant as when they went in, but breathing morefreely, as if a great weight had been lifted from them. Each youth hadlost another hour of his life and with it a portion of his dignity andself-respect, and in exchange there was an increase of discontent,of aversion to study, of resentment in their hearts. After all thisask for knowledge, dignity, gratitude!

_De nobis, post haec, tristis sententia fertur_!

Just as the two hundred and thirty-four spent their class hours,so the thousands of students who preceded them have spent theirs,and, if matters do not mend, so will those yet to come spend theirs,and be brutalized, while wounded dignity and youthful enthusiasmwill be converted into hatred and sloth, like the waves that becomepolluted along one part of the shore and roll on one after another,each in succession depositing a larger sediment of filth. But yet Hewho from eternity watches the consequences of a deed develop like athread through the loom of the centuries, He who weighs the valueof a second and has ordained for His creatures as an elementallaw progress and development, He, if He is just, will demand astrict accounting from those who must render it, of the millions ofintelligences darkened and blinded, of human dignity trampled uponin millions of His creatures, and of the incalculable time lost andeffort wasted! And if the teachings of the Gospel are based on truth,so also will these have to answer--the millions and millions who donot know how to preserve the light of their intelligences and theirdignity of mind, as the master demanded an accounting from the cowardlyservant for the talent that he let be taken from him.

[29] "To lie about the stars is a safe kind of lying."--Tr.

[30] Throughout this chapter the professor uses the familiar _tu_
in addressing the students, thus giving his remarks a contemptuous
tone.--Tr.

[31] The professor speaks these words in vulgar dialect.

[32] To confuse the letters _p_ and _f_ in speaking Spanish was a
common error among uneducated Filipinos.--Tr.

4 comments:

Have you watched the film "3 idiots"? Most of our colleges/universities here are like the school in the film. Sadly, most of the PRC exams are aligned with how the students were taught in these institutions. Example, instead of asking stoich questions for General Chemistry, most of the questions are of this type: "What is the common name of ...." or "Who discovered ...." What the heck?

Anyway, I had a colleague who has actually memorized the periodic table, knowing the average atomic mass of each element to two decimal places. And there is another one who knows sine values for every degree (0 to 45 degrees). And I had a classmate in high school who knew pi for about 100 decimal places. Memorization is part of learning. Thinking aloud and reading aloud are proven techniques. Knowledge requires short term memory and practice helps in converting these to long term memory. Multiplication tables are examples. And these stay with you for a lifetime so that when you do punch the wrong keys on a calculator - you would have a clue that you did something wrong. I try to impress my students sometimes by recitingSc Ti V Cr Mn Fe Co Ni Cu Zn.... When I was a gradute student in Chicago - we were never provided a periodic table during exams. This was in 1989. Learning is not just about skills, it also involves content and memorization is important.

Well, it is very true that learning also involves memorization. However, we are living in a modern world. Students nowadays don't see the need to memorize things (this is just my observation). Why do they have to memorize pi for 100 decimal places when they can use Google to find not just the first 100 but the first 1000 or 10000 digits of pi? Josh Foer, author of Moonwalking with Einstein calls this phenomenon as the "externalization of memory". I think this is a very interesting topic that you can discuss (in another blog perhaps that is not devoted to K-12?). I really want to hear your thoughts about this as an established scientist/educator. :) Thanks.

Thank you for your comments. Since you are in the Philippines, your thoughts are probably providing me some insights on what the current thinking is with regard to education. Basic education could behave like fashion, there are trends, latest craze, etc. Some come and fade like bell-bottom jeans. But quite recently, skepticism has entered, with greater attention to statistical analysis and evidence-based studies. There have been advances in cognitive psychology. One is the realization that most experts do have a lot of things that they could do automatically and unfortunately, some of these are taken for granted and during teaching, these experts are unable to communicate these to the students. It is then required that experts pay greater attention to how their minds really work to have a more effective teaching.

Critical thinking can not come without knowledge first. It is like a computer with CPU but no memory. Learning should be enjoyable but it does not mean that it should not involve work. Learning becomes enjoyable when work becomes a source of fulfillment. In one of the links provided in this blog, http://philbasiceducation.blogspot.com/2012/04/wisdom-behind-short-school-hours.html, (the link is http://www.timeandlearning.org/files/TimeWellSpent.pdf) there are several slogans: "There is no substitute for hard work; there are 90000 minutes this year, make the most out of every minute; No shortcuts, no excuses; Welcome to out school, the home of the most hardworking students in the state." Yet, there is one common theme: Learning is work.

Memorization and drills are important, these are exercises of the mind and should not be weighed simply by what is being memorized. The exercise itself is important. And there are things that need to be committed to memory. Arithmetic and reading begin with memory. We learn addition, subtraction, multiplication and division by remembering them first - we increase our vocabulary by remembering words. And only after having some of these can we begin to process them and learn to think critically. If we could skip this step then as you pointed out, all we need is "Google". But I am afraid that may not be the way a human mind develops. Skipping this step may not work, otherwise, with Google and access to internet, everyone could become a critical thinker at an instant.

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About Me

Angel C. de Dios, Ph.D., is currently an associate professor of chemistry at Georgetown University. At Georgetown, he has been teaching General Chemistry since 1995 in addition to graduate courses in molecular spectroscopy and quantum chemistry. His research interests include nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, protein structure determination, anti-malarial drugs, and math and science education. He was a recipient of a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation and the Georgetown College Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. A member of PAASE (Philippine American Academy of Science and Engineering), he helped the residents of Paete, Laguna incorporate computers and the Internet into their public schools.